Hello Everyone,
I have a bunch of cut single frame120 6x4.5 negatives that I want to scan with my Sony A7R4. Looking for a film holder that will hopefully keep it flat when mounted, since some of them will have curls in them in some form (any suggestions to flattening the negatives before scanning would be appreciated).
I have been eyeing the Lobstar Holder Kit with the 645 Mask option;
Lobster Holder Medium Format Mask
Will this be a good choice or is there something better?
Just scanned a bunch of 6x6 and 6x9 negatives that were cut from rolls of 120 film in the nineteenfifties.
I just put them on the Kaiser plano light and moved that to align the negatives. The negatives were held flat by static charge. No masks or holders whatsoever. And although it all seems way off doctrine, the results were good.
Welcome to the forum and thank you for introducing this interesting new Lobster film holder system, I’ve not seen it on here nor on the other Facebook forums relating to film copying. This is a link to the Lobster website:
I like it in principle, I also make use of Neodymium magnets to make my own DIY film holders stay flat but mine are simply cut from 2mm MDF so nothing like as sophisticated as his system. I hope that you get some early ‘Lobster’ adopters to give you some feedback here but certainly the feedback on Etsy seems positive and he seems genuinely interested in refining his product as necessary.
I’m not entirely sure that it is the solution to your problem, it’s hard to tell. The videos show uncut film being pushed through into position from the side and then the insert holds it down using it’s magnetic attraction to clamp it flat. That actually looks fine and potentially a better arrangement than other popular holders, I’m just wondering it is equally effective if you are dropping a single frame down into the aperture, it might be though!
Are you only going to be scanning these 645 cut frames or are you also looking for something for other formats as well? If it is the former you could just try making something yourself, a simple frame, you can even use suitable tape with the ends folded back to hold them down.
One things that puzzles me is that he calls it ‘Lobster’ suggesting in the text that it has a claw action and so somehow stretches the film flat at the same time. I don’t see how it can do that but I might be missing something. Also does the 645 holder let you see some film rebate? NLP does require you to sample the film rebate and personally I like to have a sliver of rebate anyway.
Hello Harry, I ended up purchasing this item instead for my 645 negatives;
6x4.5 to 6x7 Multi-Top DSLR Scanning Table
He told told me I can get a custom 6x4.5 base, to help keep the negatives flat.
I did buy the Lobstar Kit for my 35mm negative strips, but without the 645 mask. I will let you know how it works out & give my review on those 2 items.
Great, look forward to your reviews. I’ve not come across PLA before but it looks like it should be easy to use and versatile, inexpensive too.
I lay a fake Hasselblad scanner holder (was available from a chap in Hong Kong) without the magnetic cover on the Kaiser light table and the negative on top of that, then to assure critical focus accuracy I lay a piece of museum glass on top of it. If Newton rings show up, I use an anti-Newton glass instead. Works fine.
